It didn't take long before the fruits of project Aegis Mentis were brought over under heavy guard. Alex quickly ordered them to place it in his room and hurried to finish up what he was working on so he could go deal with this.
"Leave me!" He ordered, waving off his guards as he was left alone in his room with the small black box they had brought over from The Garden.
He took a deep breath as he reached out and opened the box. Inside was a small silver cross adorned with a red ruby.
Though there was neither silver nor ruby inside the box, no matter what it might look like. The cross was made from SCP-148 due to its strong ability to defend against mind-altering effects.
The ruby was just some red glass, heavily reinforced and strong like hell, but it was no more than a shell holding inside it a tiny and very special reality anchor.
The entire thing was a true marvel of high-end tech and anomalous research; it was so small, yet within it, it held an arch reactor strong enough to power it for decades to come; heck, it could power a small town for a mouth, no problem.
Yet here it was all shrunken down to the point it could fit inside a tiny fake ruby sitting on a tiny cross.
He picked up the cross with a strongly beating heart. It did not have a chain since it was meant to be an earring rather than a necklace.
He wasted no time in making a small hole in his ear and hanging the cross there. Within moments, he felt it happen; project Aegis Mentis was working.
Alexander stood there with his eyes closed for several minutes before opening them back again and looking at his reflection in the mirror. He was met with the gold hard stare of his eyes, one blue, one green. A smirk slowly spread on his lips as he whispered a single work. "Solomon."
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[SITE-12555]
Within the now much-improved SITE-12555, young Skye wasn't having a good time. She had been taken, kidnapped, and disappeared by the deep state, and her chances of getting free were slim.
She had woken up in this tiny cell after having been knocked up in their car, dressed in nothing but an ugly orange jumpsuit, like something one would see prisoners wear in movies.
She had nothing to work with, no electronics she could temper with and try to escape; she had gotten no interaction with anyone safe for someone banging on her door three times a day before they slid her some food in on a tray.
It had been a few days now. Her ability to count the days was made easy by the small stack of used trays next to the door.
She had hoped she might be able to somehow use the fact that they left them with her to her advantage, but she really couldn't do anything with them at all, and as such, they were just sitting there, a testament to her imprisonment.
The boredom was slowly starting to drive her mad when she finally heard someone banging on the door and shouting at her, "Johnson! Stay away from the door; we can see you; if you resist, you will be shocked."
Skye was still not sure why they insisted on calling her that; it wasn't her name, not even before she used her hacking skills to erase her past, so why? But that question aside, she did stay away from the door as they opened it up.
"Face the wall, hand on your back, legs straight and together." The guard just ordered her and Soon Skye was cuffed and had her legs chained together, making walking difficult and running all but impossible.
They then led her into another room, which looked just like the interrogation room was supposed to from all the cop TV shows she had watched.
Here, too, they chained her to the table and chair before leaving her alone, answering none of her questions and saying nothing but what they had to in order to instruct her on how she should move.
"Miss Johnson, I thought it might finally be time to talk with you. I'm sure you have questions." That was the greeting she received as the door opened and a man in a suit entered.
"No sunglasses?" Skye tried to remain brave even though she was, in truth fucking terrified.
"Wearing sunglasses is surprisingly effective in making a face much harder to remember." He simply stated as he sat down across from her. "But it's hardly needed if those who will see your face won't be seeing daylight again."
The chilling words sent a shiver down Skye's spine, but she forced herself to maintain her composure. "So, what do you want from me?" she demanded, trying to sound more confident than she felt.
The man in the suit smiled slightly, a cold, calculating expression that did nothing to ease her nerves. "A good question, Miss Johnson, for it's the most important one, isn't it? I'm happy you are smart enough to realize that."
The man then opened the folder he had placed on the table and pulled out a picture of the inside of her mobile home, or more accurately, a picture of her computer.
"You are highly skilled in hacking; it was quite a surprise. We knew you were good but hadn't expected you to be at this level." He said and confused Skye a whole lot.
After all, she was sure they had brought her here due to her hacking skills, but it seemed they weren't even fully aware of them before capturing her. So why in the world had she been taken? And why did they keep calling her Johnson? Had they really found the wrong person?
"So you want me for my hacking? And my name isn't Johnson, it's Skye."
"Oh no, while impressive, we would hardly trust an outsider with any tasks like that. No, You, Miss Daisy Johnson is here before of who, or rather because of what you are." He said and put what looked like a blood work report down in front of her.
It's not that Skye could make head or tail of it; she knew her way around a firewall, not medical stuff like this. "Alright, listen here. I'm not sure what kind of mistake you have made, but I'm not this person. I never heard that name before."
The agent just shook his head and leafed through the small pile of papers he had brought with him before finally finding what he was looking for. He presented Skye with two pages, one showing a picture of a man and the other of a woman.
"Your father, Calvin Zabo, a rather skilled doctor, and with a decent amount of assets under his name, about 11 million, in fact. He is currently running around trying to find you after you were kidnapped as a child."
His words shocked Skye. She had been looking for her parents, wanting to find them so she could learn her history and understand why she was left behind. "Kidnapped?" She couldn't help but ask.
Was that the truth? Had she been kidnapped away from her parents, who were now looking for her? She looked at the picture of her supposed father and could see some similarities right away.
"Yes indeed. Your file mentions that your home village was attacked, your mother kidnapped for experimentation, and you taken away by Shield." The man rather potentially explained.
Hearing that, Skye couldn't help but look at the other picture, the one supposedly showing her mother. What had happened to her, why was she taken, and did she die? Was that why it was only her father who was looking for her?
It then struck her: the blood work! Was she taken for the same reason as her mother? Was there something special about them? And were the people who took her the same who took her mother and killed an entire village?
The man likely knew what she was thinking as he quickly started to speak and explain. "Your mother really was unlucky, to be captured by Hydra twice for experimentation, though the first time around she was lucky to get freed."
He then pushed yet another document over to her. This wasn't a picture, thankfully, but rather just some text; Skye quickly started to read through it and was shocked and sickened by what she read.
It was the record of a medical procedure, if one could even call it that; it was all about removing organs, blood, and bone marrow from a subject, all while they were alive and aware. The name of the subject near the end, as they mentioned disposal, made her feel sick, Jiaying, the same name as over her mother's picture.
"yes, as you can see she appeared to have suffered greatly, yet she isn't dead." The man said, shocking her.
"How? How could anyone survive this?" She said, pointing at the report.
"A mix of things really. For one, she had a very good husband, someone who was willing to do anything to save her. Your father managed to create his own super-strength serum. While it does have many side effects, it's impressive nonetheless."
The man smoothly continued. "He, a doctor, fought and killed his way to your mother; what remained of her, he put her together piece by piece."
Skye wasn't sure what to think, the things she was told were shocking, sounding unbelievable. "How did she survive? Even if my father was good, the things they did to her."
"That brings us back to why we brought you here, your mother is an awakened inhuman, and you, carry the inhuman gene inside you." The man explained, yet just left her more confused since she had no idea of what he was talking about.
Skye blinked, trying to process everything. "Inhuman? What are you talking about?"
The man leaned back and appeared helpless. "That's what I would want to know, and we believe you will be key to unlocking that secret. So we will be taking you into our custody and hope you will work for us."
"And if I won't?"
"Oh, Miss Johnson, you will; we have ways to make sure of that." He said with a smile on his face. "Thanks for this talk, I have concluded that you are willing to work, if motivated, you will hear more soon." He said before he left.
Skye—Daisy—felt a rush of disbelief and anger. "Hey! Come back here! I'm not done with you yet!" She yelled, but he didn't come back, instead she was just met with two guards coming in and taking her back to her cell.
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[SITE-009]
Alexander was still marveling at the way the world had changed around him the moment he wore the mind protecting earing. It lifted a veil, it was like the wool had been pulled from his eyes.
He realized he had forgotten so many thing. So much had been hidden from him, the world he saw nothing but a lie. His own memories had been but a lie. Yet now he fully remembered it all, every detail.
Alexander went back inside his bunker, he needed to be alone for a moment to think, and only the bunker was safe enough. "Well, one mystery has been cleared now, hasn't it? Oh, Solomon," he whispered, looking at the system panel in front of him. Before he looked down at the ring on his finger.
"Solomon, unleash unto me the next secret of the heavens," he said, his grin a clear sign that he had received the reaction he had expected.
Yes, he was very satisfied with the result of project Aegis Mentis, even if it didn't offer projection against other threats, which it did. Just the fact that it lifted the veil was more then enough to make it well forth the investment and time sunk into it. For the truth, was worth everything.
A/N
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